PROJECT DELIVERABLE D2
DISSEMINATION AND USE PLAN
Second REVISION
Shared-cost RTD
Project acronym: TOURBOT
Project full title: Interactive Museum Tele-presence Through
Robotic Avatars
Contract Number: IST-1999-12643
Key Action:
3
Action Line:
3-2-3
Dissemination and Use
Plan-Second Revision
Project
Deliverable
TOURBOT: Interactive Museum Tele-presence Through Robotic Avatars
Project Deliverable D2: Dissemination and Use Plan – Second Revision
Date Produced:
June 27, 2001
Authors:
George Giannoulis, Maria Roussou and Panos
Trahanias
Contents
1
2
3
Revision Summary ....................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5
Dissemination Plan....................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Completed Dissemination Activities ..................................................................... 6
3.2 Planned Dissemination Activities ........................................................................ 18
3.3 Summary.............................................................................................................. 23
4 Exploitation Plan ........................................................................................................ 24
4.1 Sector Survey....................................................................................................... 24
4.2 Individual Exploitation Plans .............................................................................. 27
4.3 Initiation of New Projects .................................................................................... 28
4.4 Market Exploitation Plans ................................................................................... 29
4.5 Summary.............................................................................................................. 31
5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 32
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Revision Summary
The TOURBOT project commenced on January 1, 2000 and has already completed
successfully its first 18 months. The consortium regards dissemination activities as a part
of major importance in the overall progress and success of the project. Therefore, the
participants have planned a series of major events and TOURBOT trials to be realized at
the end-user museum sites of the project (Foundation of the Hellenic World, Deutsches
Museum Bonn, Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens). The first such event and
trial took place at the “Hellenic Cosmos” Cultural Center of the Foundation of the
Hellenic World in Athens, Greece. The trial lasted for one week, from May 28 to June 2,
2001 and was accompanied by a press conference (on May 28, 2001) and a major public
event (on May 29, 2001). During these events, members of the consortium and the
representative of the European Commission services, Mr. Jan Hoorens, presented the
TOURBOT project to the press and the public.
Visitors tour the FHW exhibition with the help of the robotic avatar
LEFKOS during TOURBOT's first trial and event in May 2001.
The trial has succeeded to attract wide media coverage. Almost all national Greek
newspapers, the major television broadcast stations and journals or specialized magazines
in culture and informatics have covered the event (a list of Greek TV shows and
newspaper publications of TOURBOT is attached in ANNEX III of this report). An
important outcome of this first public presentation of TOURBOT is that educational
institutions (such as the Pedagogical Institute of Greece which is in charge of all
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education and school related material in Greece), museums, technology enterprises, and
policy makers were present at the event and participated in the trial. A significant number
of individuals expressed a very strong interest in the TOURBOT project, the possibilities
it entails, and the possibility of its permanent introduction in the country’s cultural and
educational organizations.
Meanwhile the consortium received a very positive response and interest concerning the
project, following targeted actions of dissemination activities. Therefore, it continued,
since December 2000 (when the first revision of D2-Dissemination and Use Plan was
produced), by pursuing several targeted actions that aimed at further disseminating the
TOURBOT goals and the knowledge gained from the project's progress. The consortium
took part in workshops, international conferences, and events. It has also presented the
overall application in several other academic events and university presentations. These
actions have so far been successful in making the TOURBOT project well known. As a
result, in some cases, the TOURBOT consortium was specifically invited to contribute to
workshops or seminars to present the TOURBOT project and get the ideas across new
audiences.
One of the important events within these activities was the presence of the TOURBOT
consortium, represented by FHW, at the internationally acclaimed annual conference
“Museums and the Web” that took place in Seattle, USA in March 2001. The paper
submitted by the consortium and accepted for presentation at the conference, included a
detailed technical description of TOURBOT that attracted wide conference interest.
Following this event, TOURBOT partners have been approached by several museum
organizations as well as from a representative of the US Secretary of Commerce in order
to explore possibilities of collaboration and further developments of the TOURBOT
technology.
TOURBOT partners have also put together the TOURBOT ideas in articles, interviews,
workshop material and more that have been published in newspapers, magazines, special
editions and other printed material addressed to the general public.
This second revision of the Dissemination and Use Plan includes all new dissemination
activities as well as revisions of previous sections as they pertain to current progress of
TOURBOT. Additionally, this revision presents the consortium findings with respect to
the exploitation potential and related plans.
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Introduction
The current document constitutes the Dissemination and Use Plan (DUP) of the
TOURBOT project, a two-year RTD project funded by the Information Society
Technologies (IST) Programme of the European Union (EU). DUP describes initial plans
of the consortium for (a) the dissemination of knowledge and results gained in the course
of the project and, (b) exploitation plans of project developments.
Information society, in the dawn of the third millennium, advances far beyond the mere
use of technology in well-established application areas (i.e. banking, booking, office
automation, etc.), by incorporating novel models of information access and management.
With a clear focus on user-friendliness, accessibility of technologies to the broader
public, and integration and convergence across information processing, communication
and media, research and development efforts are addressing conventional applications
under a new perspective. Globalization and the ever-increasing demand for transparent
and personalized access to various kinds of information are the driving forces for
research in this area, paving the way towards services that are universally and seamlessly
accessible to all.
Under this perspective, there is no doubt that flourishing technologies will only be
assimilated in advanced applications for the broader public, only through appropriate
dissemination activities and the pursue of suitable exploitation plans. The TOURBOT
consortium places utmost importance to dissemination and exploitation activities. From
the very early stages of the project the consortium has addressed these issues with
targeted actions. Although the major dissemination and exploitation activities are planned
for the near future, TOURBOT participants have already inaugurated the corresponding
path and the prospects are extremely promising.
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Dissemination Plan
Access to cultural exhibits is a central issue in museums and exhibition galleries that is
recently approached under a new, technological perspective. Although the cultural
industries’ practices have remained practically unchanged for long in the cases of
museums and cultural exhibits, in recent years we are witnessing a gradual adoption of
media-technologies in various aspects of the sector, such as digital document
preservation, media- and Web-presentation, graphical animations, etc. The advent of such
technologies contributes towards providing media-rich presentations of cultural exhibits
and consequently offering better services to museum visitors. Lately, Internet and Webbased technologies are also employed, for providing access mostly to images of exhibited
objects.
It is clearly evident that suitable dissemination activities are needed for the introduction
of high-technology application systems in museums’ environments. Especially in the case
of TOURBOT, the relevant technology may represent an unfamiliar concept to the
museums’ community. Therefore, dissemination of the project results and objectives is of
utmost importance in the adoption and use of relevant technologies. Realizing that, the
TOURBOT consortium has undertaken specific dissemination activities and has set up a
concrete plan for additional such tasks, already from the early stages of the project.
3.1
Completed Dissemination Activities
Web Site
For a project, such as TOURBOT, that addresses information access and tele-presence
services through the web, the project’s own presentation over the web is a major
dissemination activity that contributes to its positive image and profile. The rapid
expansion of Internet has established it as an important database, where information
mining can be relatively effortlessly achieved and access restrictions are minimal.
Consequently, broad dissemination capabilities open up through sound and professional
presentation of the project via the web. In this context, TOURBOT has utilized the
professional expertise of a graphics designer to set up the project’s web site. The site has
been established at FORTH (project coordinator) with the following URL
http://www.ics.forth.gr/tourbot and is operational since the end of project month one (end
of January 2000).
A number of requirements have been set forth for the establishment of TOURBOT’s web
site:
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 Professional design in order to attract visitors with diverse backgrounds (museum
specialists, cultural presentation specialists, computer scientists, engineers, etc).
 Fast access to the web pages.
 Provision of suitable information at various levels of detail.
The TOURBOT project website.
The consortium believes that the above objectives have been met with the current design.
However, the continuous maintenance and development of the web site is critical to
ensure successful promotion of the project. This task has been undertaken by FORTH and
will continuously be active through the life cycle of the project.
Leaflet
Besides the “electronic” presentation of TOURBOT, other traditional presentation media
are particularly useful to ensure broad publicity of the project’s aims and results. Printed
information constitutes a tangible means of advertisement, for the mere reason that it may
be easily distributed to the public and/or professionals, it remains unaltered for long
periods of time and is naturally accessed. In the case of TOURBOT, where the target
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dissemination groups are diverse groups of professionals and the broader public, a nontechnical project leaflet constitutes an important means to convey information.
The TOURBOT consortium has proceeded with the production and initial dissemination
of a professionally designed and printed leaflet. The leaflet has been designed targeting
mostly museum and cultural presentation experts and the public, and to a lesser degree
computer scientists and engineers. Visual and textual information has been smoothly
integrated in it to effortlessly inform the reader about TOURBOT project aspects and its
implications. The textual information appears in three languages in the leaflet: English,
Greek and German, facilitating thus its acceptance especially by non-professionals and
supporting linguistic diversity.
The consortium has supplied the EU with an adequate number of copies of the leaflet,
mostly for internal distribution purposes. All consortium participants have also received a
number of copies to distribute according to their discretion. Moreover, the consortium has
distributed the leaflet in all public events (e.g. appropriate exhibitions), relevant
workshops and symposia that have been pursued so far and will continue to do so.
Brochure
The leaflet was designed as a short introduction to the TOURBOT ideas. However, the
consortium felt that this could not be sufficient throughout the project, since the interest
about the new robotic application increases with time.
Therefore a high quality illustrated brochure was also considered as an important printed
vehicle for the dissemination of TOURBOT results. The brochure has been designed
professionally with the original intention to be attractive and easy to read. It is targeting
not only the general public but also museums and other cultural institutions and
organisations. The idea is that the end users/museums that would like to find out more
details about the overall application would find useful such a publication.
The brochure is considerably more informative and descriptive compared to the leaflet
and contains up to date results and developments of the project. It avoids the detailed
presentation of technical issues and focuses in describing the overall application, its
potential use and benefits from such a system for the end user and the general public, i.e.
potential web-users and on-site visitors. Contributions to community social objectives,
innovations and economic prospects are also mentioned in the brochure. It includes
illustrative material (pictures from the trials, the robotic avatar, the end user sites, etc)
giving thus a clear intuition of the TOURBOT project and the implied applications.
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The brochure has been produced in English, the official language of the Project. The
consortium has supplied the EU with a number of copies of the brochure. All project
participants have furthermore contributed to distributing it broadly to appropriate
organizations and bodies. Parts of it are also presented electronically through the
project’s web site.
Other Publications and Press
In December 2000 a high quality deliverable was prepared, the report on prospects of
museum robotics in EU, and became available to the public. This included ideas,
possibilities, and prospects concerning the implementation of robotics achievements in
the cultural sector. It has been broadly distributed, making museums as well as robotics
enterprises and technology research organizations aware of the possibilities that exist
currently through RTD activities, such as the TOURBOT project. For the benefit of this
report, the consortium decided to undertake a targeted action, disseminating among
museum professionals the TOURBOT idea and taking their feedback.
As far as press coverage is concerned, it is important to report dissemination activities
that include articles in newspapers and magazines. A major Greek newspaper,
Eleutherotypia, presented in its Sunday paper, September 17, 2000, a one-page article
regarding TOURBOT. The article received extended publicity in Greece, as gathered by
the comments that were communicated to consortium members.
TOURBOT has been presented in the cultural section of the magazine Parallelos 37 in its
July 2000 issue. Parallelos 37 is a tri-monthly edition distributed to 15000 lawyers and
judges across Greece. This has been considered as a targeted action to a literate section of
the Greek population.
References to the TOURBOT project have been made in the archaeological magazine
Corpus 22 (2000). The same magazine will print shortly a special issue on Archaeology
in the 20th century, where the TOURBOT application will be presented once more. The
magazine mainly targets the general public that has an interest in archaeology.
An interview with Dr. Andrea Niehaus, director of the Deutsches Museum Bonn (deputy
director at the time of the interview) about TOURBOT was published in the journal
it_science. it_science addresses researchers and decision-makers, entrepreneurs, analysts
and managers in banking, decision-makers in research and development. This issue of
it_science was published on the occasion of the opening of the CeBIT 2001 exhibition on
March 22 (starting issue of 30.000 copies) in Hannover. The article also featured project
partner Professor Dr. Wolfram Burgard. Dr. Niehaus replied to questions that focused on
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the use of robots in museums in general and of TOURBOT in particular. The title of the
interview was “Rendezvous mit Tourbot” (Rendezvous with Tourbot) and the interviewer
was Manfred Theisen for it_science.
Furthermore, the Deutsches Museum Bonn arranges interviews in preparation for the
upcoming TOURBOT event to be held at the museum in November. These interviews
also involve other partners from within the consortium. The partners involved in this
initiative during the period of this report include:
 Professor Dr. Wolfram Burgard in it_science journal (see above).
 Dirk Schulz in a radio interview to WDR 5. The interview was broadcasted on May
23, 2001 at 2 pm in Lilipuz, addressing children. The interview focussed on robotics
and was aimed at preparing the children’s program in the upcoming TOURBOT event
at the Deutsches Museum Bonn.
The Deutsches Museum Bonn intends to expand on its interview activities by arranging
additional interviews for the project partners through its regular contacts with journalists
from the radio, TV and printed press.
Scientific Presentations and Publications
The initial dissemination activities of TOURBOT have also addressed the scientific
community. A paper describing the project goals, methodology and prospects has been
co-authored by all project participants and was submitted for presentation to the Culture
Track of the WWW9 Conference, May 16-19, 2000, Amsterdam. This conference is a
major international forum for activities related with the remote access and presentation of
information. The paper has been accepted and presented within a “Museum’s on the
Web” session, attracting the interest of the audience. The session organizers have
requested to place in a web site the electronic slides of the presentation, which was
approved by the consortium. The project is expected to achieve high publicity through
this electronic dissemination activity.
Similarly, a short article that briefly presents TOURBOT has been submitted for
publication to the ERCIM News, the official bulletin of ERCIM (European Research
Consortium of Informatics and Mathematics). FORTH is a member of ERCIM, which
includes also many high-technology Institutions across Europe. ERCIM News is a highquality publication that is broadly distributed across research and technology
organizations in Europe. The paper appeared in the July 2000 issue with a special theme
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on “Robotics”. It is expected to contribute to the consortium’s efforts for project
awareness in the scientific community.
Additionally, the consortium addressed organizations and programs related to the cultural
sector. Represented by FHW and the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, the
consortium took part in a one-day conference organized by EVA 2000, held in Athens on
May 26th 2000. Eva 2000 focused on “Cultural Tourism and New Technologies” and
was addressed to people from the cultural sector, tourism and travel sectors, technology,
media and telecommunications, research organizations in technology and the visual arts,
local and national government. EVA (Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts) is a part of
the original EU supported Vasari Project and acts as a cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary,
local and global set of events for people interested in new technologies in the cultural
sector. The participation to this conference is an important dissemination activity since
TOURBOT marks the advent of certain (robotics-web) technologies in the cultural
heritage sector. The participation in EVA 2000 is expected to contribute to TOURBOT’s
publicity, especially to people from museums and other cultural institutions and to open
up exploitation opportunities.
Furthermore the TOURBOT project received an invitation from the University of Aegean
to participate in a two-day workshop that was held June 30 - July 2, 2000 in Mytilene,
Greece. The invitation was accepted and the project coordinator held a report and a
presentation regarding TOURBOT. Presenting TOURBOT research and development
activities in such environments is expected to reveal interest and offer information and
awareness of the project to people from relevant organizations. As expected, the
presentation received very good comments and warm acceptance by the audience.
The consortium’s dissemination plan includes also activities regarding technological
developments and the relevant knowledge gained in the course of the project. Towards
this end, the consortium is committed to present its work in international conferences and
other fora in the sector. TOURBOT related developments were introduced with two
technical presentations in the 15th ICPR (International Conference on Pattern
Recognition) that took place 3-8 September 2000 in Barcelona, Spain. The conference
covered recent advances in many different technical fields, among others in robotics as
well as their applications. Therefore, an international audience was aware of different
technological achievements being used in the TOURBOT project.
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TOURBOT presentations address a wide audience, from the
cultural, educational, and informatics sectors.
FHW participated at a Meeting on 24 November 2000 in Athens with the subject Cultural
Informatics and Education. The meeting was organised by the Human Network for
Cultural Informatics (http://www.ics.forth.gr/CULTUREnet/). The Participants presented
the TOURBOT Project, its purposes and developments in a special section of the meeting
dedicated to possibilities and prospects in offering education and culture in a networked
world. The audience represented the cultural, educational and informatics sector and has
welcomed the robotic application as an innovation that increases enormously access to
cultural heritage.
TOURBOT was invited to participate in a meeting for "Tourism Related Projects",
organized by INFSO B5, Brussels on February 20, 2001. The invitation was accepted and
the project co-ordinator Dr. Panos Trahanias who participated in the meeting delivered a
short presentation regarding TOURBOT and its goals. The project brochure was also
distributed to the meeting participants.
The FHW initiated and, in collaboration with all other consortium members, submitted a
scientific paper entitled “Enhancing Museum Visitor Access Through Robotic Avatars
Connected to the Web” at this year’s Museums and the Web conference
(http://www.archimuse.com/mw2001). The paper was accepted for presentation at the
conference and was published in the conference proceedings. The conference was held
from March 14-17, 2001 in Seattle, Washington USA and was attended by an
international audience of museum professionals, technologists and policy makers. The
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paper presentation was attended by an audience of approximately 250 people and was
received with great enthusiasm sparking lasting interest and multiple contacts.
A presentation entitled “Museum Robotic Avatars at Work: Real Experiences from
Operation in an Exhibition Workspace” was delivered by the project co-ordinator during
a 2-day Workshop organised by the Department of Cultural Technology and
Communication at the University of Aegean. The workshop was held in June 1-3, 2001.
Another presentation entitled “TOURBOT - Interactive Museum Telepresence Through
Robotic Avatars” was delivered by FORTH at a one-day workshop organised by the
Human Network on Cultural Informatics and held in Athens, Greece on June 11, 2001.
Events
The consortium includes in its dissemination activities the participation in exhibitions
focusing on technological issues and developments. TOURBOT was represented by
FORTH in the exhibition for Research and Technology organized by the General
Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Technology (GSRT) of the
Hellenic Republic. The exhibition was held in Zappeion Megaron, Athens, 6-26 May
2000.
The exhibition was open to the public and attracted a large number of visitors. The
robotic avatar (with a subset of TOURBOT capabilities) was a focal point on visitors’
interest. A lot of questions have been raised and answered concerning TOURBOT’s
objectives, its application, and its prospects. Moreover spots and short reports from the
exhibition and in particular with respect to TOURBOT have appeared in the Greek press
and media. A great interest has been revealed on the application of the project and the
participation to this exhibition has significantly contributed to the awareness of the public
about the project itself and its usefulness.
The consortium considers important and pursues the presentation of TOURBOT in
specialized workshops and events focusing on technological and/or cultural issues and
developments. The University of Freiburg participated in a number of such events,
representing the TOURBOT consortium and project:
 The Science-Festival (http://www.science-festival.de/) that took place June 21st -July
9th, 2000, in Freiburg. The Festival included over 300 events, such as workshops,
guided tours, conferences, presentations etc and is targeting especially pupils and
students. Institutions and various companies but also schools and authorities took part
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in this festival. TOURBOT has been presented in June 24-25 and received great
interest and notably attracted the audience.
 The Cultural Heritage Projects event in Vienna, June 30, 2000, organized by EU’s
Directory-General information Society, with the support of the Austrian
CULTIVATE node
that is
hosted by Cultural
Service Centre.
(http://www.cscaustria.at/events/concertation.htm ).
 A workshop at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, July 11, 2000.
 Academic presentation at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Freiburg,
July 14, 2000.
 An overall presentation of the project was delivered at Siemens AG in Munich on
July 20, 2000.
A 2-day workshop took place at FORTH in 13-14 October 2000 which included
attendees from all the FORTH institutes as well as external participants. TOURBOT was
demonstrated during this event and received great interest for its progress and
developments.
TOURBOT was presented at the Hanover Trade Fair from April 24 to April 28, 2001 by
the University of Freiburg. There was a report about the system in the Trade-Fair
Newsletter. Furthermore, two major TV-stations in Germany broadcasted a sequence
about TOURBOT during their reports from the Hanover Trade Fair.
TOURBOT on TV at the Hanover Trade Fair
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A press conference presentation, held on April 30, 2001, concerning the future of the
Deutsches Museum Bonn was delivered by the museum’s new director (Dr. Andrea
Niehaus). During the presentation, TOURBOT was mentioned as a major project of the
Deutsches Museum Bonn in 2001. At this occasion a test on the use of museum robots in
a new event design was carried out. The robot acted within a given event script,
developed by the museum. The test with a museum robot of the TOURBOT project
partner in Bonn (University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Armin Cremers, Dirk Schulz and Mark
Moors) was successful and will be applied in the upcoming TOURBOT presentation at
the Deutsches Museum Bonn in November this year.
Most importantly, the first major public event and trial for TOURBOT took place at the
Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Center of the Foundation of Hellenic World in Athens,
Greece, from Monday, May 28 to Saturday, June 2nd 2001.
The TOURBOT press conference on May 28, 2001.
The trial lasted for one week, from May 27 to June 3, 2001. At the beginning of the trial
week a press conference took place (on May 28, 2001). Following the press conference,
on the second day of the trial period, an impressive public event was held on Tuesday 29,
2001. During these events, the members of the consortium and the representative of the
Commission, Mr. Jan Hoorens, presented the TOURBOT technology to the press and the
public.
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Visitors tour the FHW exhibition with the robot during
TOURBOT's first trial and event in May 2001.
The trial has succeeded to attract wide media coverage. Almost all national newspapers
of Greece, the major television broadcast stations and journals or specialized magazines
in culture and informatics have covered the event (a list of Greek TV shows and press
coverage concerning TOURBOT can be found in ANNEX III of this report). An
important outcome of this first public showing of TOURBOT is that educational
institutions (such as the Pedagogical Institute of Greece which is in charge of all
education and school related material in Greece), museums, technology companies, and
policy makers were present at the event and participated in the trial. A significant number
of individuals expressed a very strong interest in the TOURBOT project, the possibilities
it entails, and the possibility of its permanent introduction in the country’s cultural and
educational organizations.
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Front page of “Metrorama” newspaper showing young visitors touring the FHW
exhibition with “Lefkos” during the 1-week trial period.
Professional Contacts
An important dissemination activity of the consortium constitutes the contact with a large
number of museums, covering a spectrum of collections from technological to historical
and art, as well as a number of technology brokers. The museums were mostly in Europe
but also in the United States and the appropriate persons were contacted and interviewed
over the telephone or via e-mails and letters; prior to the interviews a short description
and information about the TOURBOT project was provided. The main purpose of these
contacts was to gain feedback from experts in various museological aspects in order to
compile the User Requirements for the application of TOURBOT. The experts contacted
were first informed regarding the TOURBOT goals and activities, giving thus rise to a
major dissemination and awareness task. It is expected though this activity to raise a great
interest among museums around Europe and overseas and to initiate exploitation
prospects.
The Deutsches Museum Bonn has established regular contacts to the Institut fόr
Museumskunde (Institute of Museology) informing it about TOURBOT. The Institute of
Museology in Berlin is aimed to inform museums about any museum relevant subject.
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One focus of this institute is to provide information to museums about contemporary
technical applications (such as for instance museum robots). The Institute of Museology
in Berlin has a unique function for museums in Germany.
The FHW also maintains regular contacts with a large number of Museums and
organizations researching Hellenic History and Culture. The Foundation decided to
include TOURBOT’s brochure in all mail communication with these organizations in
order to disseminate TOURBOT achievements (see ANNEX IV of organisations who
have received TOURBOT information up to June 2001).
The TOURBOT project was mentioned at an
for Cultural and Artistic Creative Expression”
provide alternative possibilities for artistic
Darmstadt, Germany on May 21, 2001 and
technologists.
EU workshop on “Technology Platforms
as an example of a technology that could
creation. The workshop was held in
was attended by a group of artists and
The above-mentioned completed activities clearly demonstrate that the consortium’s
dissemination strategy includes participation and presentations in all proper events, like
conferences, workshops, exhibitions etc., relevant to the scientific and cultural sector.
Moreover informative material printed electronically and on paper has been made
available to experts in the above-mentioned sectors and the public. The dissemination
activities are therefore addressing all possible target groups that are particularly relevant
to the project’s objectives and the general public. The consortium feels that within the
first year of the project, a large part of the potential target groups are already aware of the
TOURBOT project’s objectives and expect with great interest the relevant developments
and their application.
3.2
Planned Dissemination Activities
The TOURBOT consortium strongly believes that dissemination should be an ongoing
activity throughout the project’s life cycle and after the end of it. It has, therefore,
compiled a complete plan of activities that covers all possible areas where TOURBOT
results can be broadly advertised and promoted. Such activities are expected to contribute
to the project’s public image and profile, its exploitation activities and generally the
successful implementation of its goals.
As in the already completed dissemination activities, the main target groups will be again
the museums and exhibitions community, robotics community and enterprises, research
and technology organizations, technical and cultural experts, as well as the general
public, especially the web visitors.
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Conferences and Relevant Events
Scientific conferences and relevant appropriate fora constitute ideal events to present
TOURBOT results and developments. TOURBOT consortium members have been active
in participating in relevant such events with announcements and presentations and are
committed to continue to do so.
Technical conferences constitute the appropriate environment for presenting technical
solutions and achievements within the TOURBOT project. The consortium has
participated in appropriate exhibitions and trade fairs focused on relevant technology in
order to disseminate the project’s results and plans to participate in more. Similarly,
partners from the museums sector plan to contribute to events or conferences concerning
the application of new technologies in the cultural market.
Publications
Various kinds of publications are planned within the project aiming at the broadest
possible dissemination of project-related aspects, results and developments to appropriate
target groups and audiences.
Wall posters or hanging posters are additionally planned due to the great impact they
have to the broad public. Preliminary thoughts on this subject include the possibility to
create banners addressed specifically to web visitors, who constitute one of the main
target groups of this project.
More Publications of the project results and achievements are planned in relevant
technical and museological journals, newspapers, museums-magazines, etc. In the
museological community the ICOM Newsletter has already been considered an
appropriate publication for the TOURBOT project. ICOM (The International Council of
Museums) contributes to the promotion and development of museums and the museum
profession internationally. It counts 15000 members in 147 countries and publishes a
quarterly Newsletter, distributed free to all its members. A preliminary idea is to hand out
a short article referring to the implementation of a robotic avatar in the museum
environment. A similar short report could possibly be planned targeting the European
museums being published in the magazine of the European Museum Forum, which
intends to raise the standard of museums throughout Europe.
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Such awareness activities will allow the majority of museums and a large number of
museum professionals internationally to be informed about the developments within
TOURBOT and the relevant applications in the cultural heritage sector in Europe.
Video
Close to the end of the project the consortium plans to produce the TOURBOT video.
Currently it is conceived as a rather short video (duration approximately 10 minutes) that
will present the project developments and achievements. It will target mostly museums
and cultural exhibition places presenting the system’s utility and possible applications.
Such a video is regarded as an important contribution to present and future project
dissemination and is expected also to contribute to exploitation activities. Considering
audio-visual material as playing an important role in better understanding projects, such
as TOURBOT, it is expected that the video will help in particular people that are not
familiar with robotics and relevant issues to get a better insight in the current project.
Spots of this video may additionally be included in the TOURBOT web site. Such an
activity is expected to be mostly for the sake of web users. The TOURBOT project
considers web users as a target audience of primary importance, considering the telepresence facilities offered by the project.
Workshop
A major public dissemination activity of crucial importance is the organization of an
active workshop during the final stages of the project. The event will include
presentations and discussions regarding the project, as well as real demonstration of the
application: the robotic avatar will navigate and interact autonomously both with
members of the museums’ staff and delegates from relevant organizations and with
museums visitors on-site or through the Web.
The demonstration is planned to take place in two more exhibition spaces (sites). The
first one has been completed successfully in the Cultural Center Hellenic Cosmos of the
FHW. Each one of the sites belongs to a different cultural market area: the Byzantine and
Christian Museum of Athens (archaeological and art museum), the Deutsches Museum
Bonn (technological museum), and The Cultural Center of the Foundation of Hellenic
World (application of technology in cultural heritage).
Currently, a potential list of participants’ profiles in the workshops has been compiled.
This includes attendees from all organizations and enterprises that are relevant to the
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goals of the project. It is planned to invite delegates from EU ministries of Culture and
Education, from relevant EU projects, professionals from large museums and cultural
heritage sites across Europe, international and national organizations, high-tech and
robotics enterprises, research organizations, educational associations, a selection of
school groups or other specific target audiences, like professionals interested in the
museums collection, friends of the museums, etc. Additionally one should mention all
web visitors that will be granted, during the demonstration, the possibility to see through
the robot’s eyes in a museum, to get the feeling of being there, to travel virtually and
have a unique experience of remotely visiting a museum.
A major goal of this demonstration is to promote TOURBOT and establish a clear idea
about its effectiveness, advertise its achievements, ameliorate the project’s use, and to
exploit and expand its market potential. Moreover the workshop intends to broadly
disseminate the project results to attract great publicity, increase visitors numbers during
the demonstration period (having the robot working also as an exhibit itself), improve the
three museums’ image (all three places are integrating more up to date technology and
thus appeal to a wider public) and finally open the way to future developments in
museum robotics.
In order to announce the workshop, the consortium plans to send press releases, to
broadly advertise it in recognized media, such as internet, television and press, as well as
through personal invitations, public relations, etc. These forms of promotion are
considered as having great impact to all potential visitors, who are mostly exposed to
more than one form of communication. Internet promotion targets all web users and is
particularly significant, as one of TOURBOT’s primary objectives is tele-presence in the
museum through the web.
All the above have been completed successfully concerning the first trial in the Hellenic
Cosmos Cultural Center of the FHW, as described above.
Other Events
The Deutsches Museum Bonn has drafted preliminary plans to dedicate, before the end of
2001, one of its programs (Wissenschaft Live) with Phoenix Channel to the TOURBOT
project. These events take place every Monday evening (17.00-19.00). Approximately
100 visitors in the museum have the possibility to discuss with scientists about a specific
subject. The Museum visitors and the scientists are connected through teleconference
facilities. The program will broadcast information on how TOURBOT operates with on
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site and web visitors, will give the opportunity to get answers if any questions are raised
and will help people form a better understanding of the relevant application.
The Deutsches Museum Bonn intends to expand on its interview activities by arranging
additional interviews for the project partners. This will be realized through regular
contacts with journalists from the radio, TV and printed press and informative meetings
about the upcoming TOURBOT presentation in Bonn.
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Summary
The following table summarizes the TOURBOT dissemination activities with additional
information regarding their status and the addressed target groups.
Dissemination Activities
Activity
Web Site
Target Group
Status
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities,
Broader Public
Completed Sub-activities,
Leaflet
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities,
Broader Public
Completed
Scientific Presentations-
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities
Completed Sub-activities,
Brochure
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities,
Broader Public
Completed
Events
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities,
Broader Public
Completed Sub-activities,
Professionals
Completed Sub-activities,
Publications
Professional Contacts
Ongoing Sub-activities
Ongoing Sub-activities
Ongoing Sub-activities
Ongoing Sub-activities
Video
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities,
Broader Public
Currently underway
Workshop
Professionals, Museum and
Technical Communities,
Broader Public
Completed Sub-activities,
Ongoing Sub-activities
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Exploitation Plan
The possibilities of new paradigms in providing access to cultural exhibits offered by the
information society are developing fast. In recent years we are witnessing a gradual
adoption of media-technologies in various aspects of the sector, such as digital document
preservation, media- and Web-presentation, graphical animations, etc. The advent of such
technologies contributes towards providing media-rich presentations of cultural exhibits
and consequently offering better services to museum visitors. Lately, Internet and Webbased technologies are also employed, for providing access mostly to images of exhibited
objects. Worldwide, many museums and exhibition places are currently exploiting such
technologies, aiming at increasing their market shares. The potential offered by the
introduction of media technologies is immense, provided that novel and attracting
services will be offered as a result of such developments.
The TOURBOT concept is in-line with the above issues, facilitating tele-presence and
effective access to cultural exhibits through robotic avatars. TOURBOT capitalizes on
cutting-edge technologies providing increased interaction with the site being visited.
Effectively, it augments existing communication networks that are nowadays used to
transmit information that is viewed via a browser, with mobile platforms at particular
nodes that allow for dynamic selection and acquisition of the information to be retrieved.
An extrapolation of current trends reveals that its employment in the cultural industries’
practices will have a positive impact.
The results of the TOURBOT project will be readily exploitable by the consortium
partners and other interested bodies. All participating organizations are committed to the
dissemination and exploitation of the project developments. Specific plans include the
commercial exploitation of products and services based on TOURBOT and the
introduction of related technology in everyday exhibition practices.
4.1
Sector Survey
The consortium considered professional contacts as an important part not only for the
dissemination activities but also for exploitation purposes within a specific target group,
the museums and exhibition centers. Therefore it has been decided, following the
informal professional interviews that have been conducted in the first six-month period of
the project, to perform a preliminary survey of the sector (museums and other similar
organizations) that would aim mostly at the marketing of TOURBOT. This survey has
been a targeted action, aiming in the compilation of a short report, indicative of the
acceptance level and the use of this new technology in the museum sector. It is also in
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full compliance with the suggestions of the reviewers following the first project review
(July 5-6, 2000, Heraklion, Greece). The results from this survey have been recorded,
structured and integrated with the results of the first round interviews. They are presented
in Annex I of the current document, constituting valuable guidelines in the development
of the project and, more importantly, in its future exploitation.
The consortium went also a step beyond, utilizing the information of the above
mentioned report and the available museum listings (taking in consideration the
museum's ICOM definition, thus the museum in a wider sense) to perform an initial
market analysis for TOURBOT. This report reveals an outline of the potential
TOURBOT market sector and is by no means a thorough market research and analysis.
Evidently, the latter would constitute a project by itself with appropriate timing right after
the termination of TOURBOT.
The following diagram is derived from the information already presented in previous
versions of dissemination and use plan and illustrates the structuring of the TOURBOT
market, taking into consideration (a) the museum's collection and its size, (b) the
museum's budget, (c) the museum's electronic infrastructure and (d) the cost of
TOURBOT. The diagram illustrates the potential structuring of the TOURBOT market
sectors. Museums and other organizations in the inner circles of the diagram are likely to
belong to the initial target groups of TOURBOT, whereas, the outer circles represent
target groups that may follow. The first target group for TOURBOT exploitation includes
mainly science and technological museums next to the large museums. The institutions
that fulfil the necessary for TOURBOT application technical requirements/electronic
infrastructure are also belonging to the initial target group for the exploitation of this
robotic application. Such organisations could possibly be the first, smaller group that
would afford the cost of the new technology. 

The following annual museum budgets are mentioned as indicative in contrast to the possible cost of
TOURBOT. The figures are from the three museums that participate in TOURBOT: The Deutsches
Museum in Bonn has a budget of around 26.000.000 Euro, the Foundation of the Hellenic World has a
budget of around 6.000.000 and the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens has a budget of 900.000
Euro. These are representative budgets of different types of museums with different collections. The first
two museums could belong to the first target group (technological museums with enhanced electronic
infrastructure and relatively large budgets) and the third one could belong to the second group
(archaeological museum of a medium budget).
Besides the pure issue of “budget”, the TOURBOT consortium strongly believes though, that a museum
robotic application, such as TOURBOT, has increased potential to attract sponsorship and thus facilitate its
employment in museums with smaller budget as well.
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Individual Exploitation Plans
Participants that act as technology providers aim at exploiting technological
developments within TOURBOT. Such developments include the robotic navigation,
computer vision and interface technologies. Moreover, the close collaboration between
the four technical partners (FORTH, UNIBONN, THEON and UNIFR) will be beneficial
for all of them. THEON expects to benefit by getting access to the latest research in
sensor-based navigation and computer vision; FORTH, UNIBONN and UNIFR are
particularly interested in teaming up with THEON due to the prospects and potential of
this co-operation.
FHW is highly interested in commercializing products and services based on TOURBOT
and introducing related technology in everyday exhibition practices. The current
exhibition in the premises of FHW, where TOURBOT is planned to be used, is the
“Krossia, Chitones, Doulamades, Velades”, 4000 years of Hellenic Costume from
prehistory until the beginning of 20th century. FHW attempts to incorporate modern
technologies in all its activities and has already established a large visitors’ group, which
is mainly attracted due to the application and use of modern technology in all its
activities. TOURBOT is considered as a major attraction, which will enhance FHW place
in the market sector.
The TOURBOT robot leading the tour through FHW's '4000
years of Hellenic Costume' exhibition.
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The other two end-user partners of TOURBOT, MUSBON and BYZMUS, aim at
exploiting the project results in their own premises. The Deutsches Museum Bonn had
already twice the possibility to test a primitive robot (RHINO), developed by UNIBONN,
as a museum tour guide. The curiosity and interest of the museum visitors was enormous.
As MUSBON is the first museum for contemporary science and research in Germany,
and following the very positive experiences gained with RHINO in the museum, it is
strongly believed that a permanent robot within the museum, that will serve Web-visitors
and will also act as tour guide, would represent a great enrichment for the museum. One
of the museum’s goals is to explain the significance of expensive basic research. A
museum robot could help in demonstrating how the results of basic research develop into
actual practical applications. This would help to increase the acceptance of high
technology within the general public, the so-called public understanding of science.
Additionally, MUSBON is organizing in cooperation with two other museums
(Washington, Munich) the Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize (1901-2001), which
is planned to open at the beginning of 2002. Since different exhibits will be presented at
the same time in the three museums, MUSBON is currently considering the exploitation
of TOURBOT technology, in providing the visitors of one museum with access to the
exhibits of the other two museums.
BYZMUS also plans to introduce a mobile agent (TOURBOT) in the presentation of
cultural commodities being exhibited. The application of a robotic avatar to the
Byzantine Museum will contribute substantially to a better and greater promotion of the
Museum, not only to the visitors but also mainly to those who are not able to travel and
see its treasures with their own eyes. Moreover, the use of this pioneering technology
offers the users multiple possibilities and renders the Museum friendlier to them.
Especially regarding children and adolescents, already familiar with modern technology,
the museum believes that it will be a motive and a spur for them to visit the museum
again and approach the exhibits in a better way.
4.3
Initiation of New Projects
Besides the above-mentioned direct exploitation plans, new vistas open for TOURBOT
results in other exhibition sectors, such as large trade fairs. In the latter, and generally in
exhibitions where the items presented (content being displayed) change often in short
periods of time, TOURBOT technology may be extremely valuable for providing access
to distant users. In such cases it is not realistic to provide even simple, static images of
the exhibits on the Web, since the dynamic nature of the exhibition’s content would turn
the Web pages obsolete very fast. The situation is even worse with richer representations
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of the exhibits (videos, virtual reality representations), since the effort needed for their
development may not pay off. Alternatively, robotic avatars can be introduced in these
cases to seamlessly provide access to Web-visitors to the contemporary content of the
exhibition. The consortium aims at initiatives to introduce and exploit TOURBOT
developments in such cases and pursue demonstration and/or commercial activities where
appropriate.
Additionally, the technical partners of TOURBOT are drafting plans to exploit
technologies developed within TOURBOT by transferring them in other application areas
where similar technologies are needed. Surveillance of indoor environments, teleoperation, maintenance, and tele-control constitute only a few tasks than can benefit from
TOURBOT technologies.
4.4
Market Exploitation Plans
Market exploitation of new technologies and related products and services is the ultimate
goal of RTD activities. Under this perspective, the consortium participants address
market exploitation with a clear focus in new products and services.
The consortium end-users (museums and exhibition places) aim at promoting their
organizations through TOURBOT, and thus increasing their access and market share. The
museums have made initial thoughts on introducing the TOURBOT system after the end
of the project in temporary or permanent exhibition spaces. Such thoughts have been
made under the spirit that the TOURBOT system helps museums increasing their
accountability in terms of responding to market forces (increased used of technology in
cultural spaces), quality of service, relevance to perceived needs. The museum
ameliorates its profile in the market, as it is estimated that the TOURBOT system
supports educational programs in national and international level, groups of visitors with
special needs or low socio-economic level, encourages interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration and partnerships and supports research.
Furthermore attracting web visitors through TOURBOT is of dual significance regarding
access to museums. On one hand the museums will offer globalization of access, since
the web visitors are identified as a large subset of the general public. On the other hand
the opportunity offered to visit the museum through the web rates highly in cases that
web visitors grow such interest in the museum’s exhibits to actually visit the museum in
the future. This eventually is a way of increasing visitor numbers. Furthermore as
museums entrance is due to a fee, the end users are considering charging the web visitors
too, if a temporary or permanent installation after the end of the project will be decided.
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The commercial partner of TOURBOT (THEON) is anticipating an increase in its market
share by promoting similar robotic platforms to interested museums and exhibition
places. Moreover, relevant plans can be envisioned for selling and leasing platforms for
related applications in various commercial sectors.
A major thrust in the TOURBOT consortium comes from the participation of two
Universities and a Research Institution. Such organizations have traditionally not
considered market exploitation of their research results. In the case of TOURBOT the
corresponding participants are already paving the way to commercially exploit project
results and developments.
The University of Freiburg in cooperation with Androtec GmbH, a spin-off company
started in Kaiserslautern, has recently done first steps towards this direction. In this
particular project, the technology for three-dimensional mapping that is developing
within the TOURBOT project will be exploited and transferred into a product. Androtec
and University of Freiburg have recently submitted to the German Federal Ministry of
Education and Research a research and development proposal for the support of this
technology implementation.
FORTH has also started first contacts with exhibition places aiming at introducing
TOURBOT related services in commercial exhibitions. At the same time preliminary
plans have been made with respect to provide the system to temporary cultural
exhibitions and charge them. Such efforts will capitalize on project developments and
will be pursued throughout the life cycle of the project as well as after the end of it.
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Summary
The following table summarizes the TOURBOT exploitation activities with information
regarding consortium participants involved.
Exploitation Activities
Activity
Participant(s) Involved
Sector Survey
ALL
Follow-up Projects
ALL
Relevant Applications
FORTH, UNIBONN,
UNIFR, THEON
In-house System Exploitation
FHW, MUSBON,
BYZMUS
Enhanced Profile
ALL
Exploitation in Cultural /
Commercial Exhibitions
FORTH, UNIBONN,
UNIFR, THEON
Product/Service Commercialization
ALL
Market Prospects
ALL
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Conclusions
It is evident from the information outlined above that all consortium partners are
committed in disseminating and exploiting the results of the project. The partners are also
perfectly aware that a multitude of exploitation possibilities exist for the results of
TOURBOT and they are capable for capitalizing on them.
The dissemination strategy involves the announcement of the project and its results in
proper fora and symposia and the broad advertisement of TOURBOT’s concepts. At the
same time an exploitation plan has already been compiled in order to integrate the results
of the project in the partners’ activities and to develop further use opportunities in
relevant application areas.
The Dissemination and Use Plan has been revised every six months (following its first
release in project month five), since the dissemination activities constitute an ongoing
procedure throughout the project that enhances exploitation possibilities. At the end of
the project, by month 24, the Technological Implementation Plan will be prepared,
including the actual achievements and plans in dissemination and exploitation activities.
The consortium considers the Dissemination and Use Plan as an important part of their
work towards the successful completion of the project but also in terms of maximizing
the impact of TOURBOT results across Europe.
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